Peterborough 'not afraid' of West Brom in FA Cup

When Russell Martin strays into uncharted territory at the Hawthorns on
Saturday, the Peterborough United captain will not be travelling solo.

Old glory: Peterborough captain Russell Martin, front, was part of the Wycombe team that lost to Chelsea in the Carling Cup semi-finals almost two years agoPhoto: AP

By David McVay

9:00PM GMT 01 Jan 2009

The third-round tie with West Bromwich Albion is the furthest the right-back, who turns the grand old age of 23 the following day, has journeyed in the FA Cup but with Darren Ferguson's side unrelenting in their pursuit of a second successive promotion, from League One, hope of further progress against the Premier League's bottom club is far from forlorn.

"We have set our sights on promotion but of course everyone wants to be the story of the round, the giant-killers, and we want to get as far as we can," said Martin, who inherited the captaincy from Craig Morgan two months ago and has only been beaten once since.

Ambitions are founded on a squad consisting of young players, many lifted from non-league who are rapidly forging reputations in the full-time game.

None more so than Craig Mackail-Smith (Dagenham and Redbridge), the competition's leading scorer last season, Aaron Mclean (Grays Athletic), League Two's Golden Boot winner with 33 goals and George Boyd, dubbed perhaps ambitiously the 'White Pele' by his fans at Stevenage Borough before Posh paid a non-league record fee of £240,000 for him.

Paul Coutts, in central midfield, is the latest raw recruit, signed from Highland League team Cove Rangers.

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Training with the lighter balls that the competition requires is the only digression from normal routine this week revealed Martin, who marked Luke Moore when the West Bromwich forward played for Aston Villa in the FA Youth Cup against Brighton and Hove Albion.

"It is fair to say that we are hungry for success and want to play higher, you have to want that in football," said Martin, who was part of the Wycombe Wanderers team that beat Fulham and Charlton Athletic en route to losing to Chelsea in the semi finals of the Carling Cup almost two years ago.

"You have to test yourself against the best and everyone knows they [West Bromwich] are a good football side and I rate Jonathan Greening as a great player. But we don't carry luxury players and the gaffer [Ferguson] has been at this level with Manchester United.

"Before all the big games, he tells us not to be afraid. He knows Premiership players and he tells us he played with worse than us."